Its not summer without a new spin-off flavor of Mountain Dew. I remember back in 2001 hoarding as much Mountain Dew: Code Red as the words "limited edition" made me fear the flavor's inevitable demise. Luckily the flavor returned the following summer as a permanent addition to the Mountain Dew family. 2003 marked the release of Mountain Dew Livewire which was Mountain Dew's answer to the caffeinated Sunkist orange soda, didn't really taste all that much different either they sort of brought this flavor back but only in 20oz bottles in select areas, sadly the NYC area is not one of them. Other subsequent limited edition flavors included Mountain Dew: Pitch Black which tasted like really bad cough medicine and Mountain Dew: Pitch Black II which tasted exactly the same, only this time with a "sour bite" covering up the hideous taste of the last one. While I don't exactly miss this flavor, I still have a few cans of Pitch Black II lying around. Apart from that they recently released the Game Fuel flavor to coincide with the release of the game Halo 3 which didn't really taste all that different than Code Red and infact did not really have that much more caffeine either, I still kind of dug it though. With the exception of the short lasting MDX energy drink experiment, I felt like limited edition Mountain Dew flavors were simply just a thing of the past...
UNTIL NOW!!!
Last winter the Pepsi company launched a new website called DEWMOCRACY!! The site would allow Mountain Dew drinkers to create a new Mountain Dew flavor based off of any color they could think of with an accompanying name. While my Battery Acid and Rusty Nail flavors were not accepted, this summer they just launched three new limited edition flavors, Revolution, Voltage and Supernova. With the titles being as non-descriptive as possible your Mountain Dew drinker was only trusting the Pepsi company to articulate the flavors based off of the colors they like, seems more like a dictatorship if you ask me. Onward to the flavors!
Mountain Dew: Voltage - The first flavor I'll mention is also the most popular one currently on the Dewmocracy website. Voltage tastes surprisingly close to the commercial failure Pepsi Blue flavor which consequently was resurrected in a Mountain Dew slurpee flavor. Or you can say it tastes like a blue non-diet version of that Fresca soda that is popular with the soccer moms across the country. Voltage is described elegantly on Wikipedia as "A blue colored raspberry-citrus and ginseng flavored Dew" which I suppose is about as accurate as the marketing material can describe. Its a decent flavor but I'm unsure as to how is winning on the online voting by such a large margin.
Mountain Dew: Revolution - this one is a "A translucent blue-colored, wild berry fruit and ginseng flavored Dew." All the new Dewmocracy flavors seem to be pushing the "ginseng" aspect of the flavor. While ginseng has not really been proven to actually give a surge of energy or anything, its been popular ever since Red Bull became a huge overpriced phenomena. This one tastes very similar to the Voltage flavor but is more of a subdued flavor, I couldn't really say it tasted like too much of anything, the sugary taste overrode any citrus-y flavor I could derive. This one is the weakest of the three flavors in my mind.
Mountain Dew: Supernova - This one is marginally my favorite, with a "A pink colored strawberry, melon, lime, and ginseng flavored Dew." To me, it tastes more like a grape soda riddled up with caffeine. Its kind of like a more refined version of the original Pitch Black flavor, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. I'm not really big on any of the flavors to be honest but this one would be my favorite I guess. I really can't see any of these flavors lasting more than a year when they inevitably pick the winner to grace store shelves. It might share the same fate as Mountain Dew Livewire if anything.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL OF THE MOUNTAIN DEW RELATED SUMMER CRAZINESS!
THERE ARE NOW MOUNTAIN DEW FLAVORED DORITOS TORTILLA CHIPS!! Its one of the flavors for the new Doritos Quest flavors that you can now find at your local gas stations and other trashy eateries. While I have not yet had the privilege to experience this flavor I can only imagine it tasting amazingly terrible. Kind of like the hamburger flavored Doritos from last year.
This past week, I haven't really seen that many films. There's a part of me that wants to see Kung Fu Panda after I saw it got an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the best rated Pacific Data Images film since Shrek 2 (which I never really thought too highly of). I'll probably see it next week when I'm away where the movie tickets are cheaper. I don't really want to pay $11.75 to see another formulaic pop culture heavy film with snarky talking animals spewing whatever kind of crude and sexual references that could fall under the PG rating. According to Dreamwork Animation's Powerpoint presentation at Pratt, that was their "winning formula" that they discovered after making the first Shrek movie. While I can't really speak down on the company, for the concept art they've shown was top-notch and if animator blogs are any indication, there are some smart and extremely talented people working there. I just feel like the upper management is more concerned with making a movie marketable to corporate America than opposed to a timeless and artful movie that sells itself for its merits and creativity (a vital aspect that most of their 3D films lack).
Onwards to movies! Beowulf - Just when I thought I was finished talking about uninspired 3D animated films, I haven't mentioned that I took out Beowulf from my local library. This latest film from Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, as well as that Forest Gump Oscar grab) takes the boring literary epic poem and translates it into a generic beef-headed action movie. The film uses a more large scale version of the motion capturing that Zemeckis incorporated into the Polar Express and Monster House which he served as a producer on. The main noticeable difference here is that Robert also attached small cameras over the eyes of the actors as a feeble attempt to avoid the doll faced world of the uncanny valley. While its cool to see the pupils of a virtual Anthony Hopkins dilate, it still doesn't come off as believable as they still bear the weight and rubbery texture of corpses. They should have went for a more stylized approach like they did in Monster House, where I could at least pay attention to the dialogue without getting freaked out by the hideous zombie animation.
The actual Beowulf film was a letdown for me as well. Most of it followed our aggressive titular hero in a series of violent trials against mythical creatures and long overblown dialogue sequences. I'm unsure how the film managed to get a PG13 rating from the MPAA. The over the top blood in the movie is reminiscent of an M-rated video game (I'd say God of War but that would give this movie too much credit) and it features what is supposed to be a naked Angelina Jolie (but it was really just Angelina Jolie's head plastered onto the body of the model of a 19 year old woman) that leaves very little to the imagination. I keep on getting reminded of some of the antics revealed in the independent documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated where big name studios would pretty much pay off the MPAA for the coveted mall friendly PG13 rating leaving most low-budget indie movies with R and NC17 ratings that they probably don't deserve. Maybe it was the terrible animation that really saved it from getting the R-rating at the end of the day. The violence looks so fake that its hard to take seriously and the animation is too wooden and soulless for the film to possibly be erotic. This reminded me of The Animatrix's Final Flight of the Osiris short film where the uncanny valley helps cross the narrow line between sexy and repulsive.
The movie somehow was able to garner a respectable 70% on Rotten Tomatoes but I feel that is largely in part to the fact that they screened the stereoscopic IMAX 3D version of the movie to the critics. I mean, I saw the infamously bad Open Season in IMAX 3D and didn't mind it due to the novelty of seeing 3D animation rendered for glasses. In fact, I felt kind of robbed watching it in "2D" on DVD. I'm sure when its more of a mainstay, it would be less impressive but for now I feel it will inflate the critical reception of movies that don't deserve it.
The Machine Girl - While I've already made a blog post about how awesome the trailer for this movie was, I finally saw it in its full length and I'm happy to say that it lived up to every ridiculously high (and by that I mean low) expectation I had for it. If you've seen the trailer, you'd already know what to hope for as the movie pretty much has the same exact pacing and amount of action as the trailer, just imagine it was extended to 90 minutes. The film seemed like what would happen if you gave a hyped up 12 year old $5 million and asked him to make Kill Bill and what your left with is a plot with about as much depth of a Power Rangers episode and a non-stop onslaught of over the top and anatomically impossible violence. Unlike Beowulf, The Machine Girl understands the immaturity in its exaggerated violence and instead of trying to convince the audience that its a serious movie, it plays off this fact and just tries to give you a good time. While it may not be a fulfilling movie experience to watch alone, it makes for excellent riffing material if you can get a bunch of sarcastic friends together in a room to watch it.
Rocky Balboa - I was surprised at how much I liked this film. Having only seen the original Rocky movie from 1976, I was afraid I would have been lost because I haven't seen any of the four sequels that followed. Thankfully, Rocky Balboa was as much as a sequel as it was a remake, where its plot was self-contained enough to entertain a new generation that hasn't experienced a Rocky movie but it had ample references and appearances of the characters from the past Rocky films to please the longtime fans. In that respect I'd consider it the perfect family movie. Pretty much anyone can grasp the story of a retired boxer who goes in for one last fight but the fact that it was a Rocky movie gives something for parents to be excited about as well. There was very little action in it surprisingly, with most of the film just building up to the final fight in the last fifteen minutes. What it did have was corny dialogue and an innocent sense of humor that was harmless enough that you can't help but really celebrate this movie.
With the underwhelming Gamestop "Game Days" sale, I also picked up a couple of video games that I would have never picked up at full price...
video game geekery: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games - This is one of those titles that I pounced on as soon as I saw it for $30. While I'm against the idea of a minigame compilation released for the Wii at full price, the shallow ten hours or so of messing around and the value as a party game make me a lot more open to a budget price tag. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games falls somewhere in between Wii Sports and Track and Field in my mind. At times, the game is pretty easy and straightforward ideal for the typical middle aged Wii consumer and young children but then at random intervals the game becomes needlessly convoluted and difficult. The amount of precision and patience with the unforgiving difficulty of these minigames harkens back to the difficulty of most NES games, and often on these games the controls more rely on button presses than on motion, making it kind of difficult to explain to the "non-gamer" this was marketed towards. The novelty of seeing both Mario and Sonic on the screen at the same time was handled much better in Super Smash Bros. Brawl with this game putting more attention on the Olympic Games in Beijing than the idea of two rival mascots finally appearing together in the same title, very little of the aesthetic and catchy music from the two franchises is actually implemented into the game, which is a bit of a disappointment to me. At the price though, the game itself was pretty fun and if you could overlook some of the apparent shortcomings you have a fairly solid and deep collection of minigames.
Octomania - I'll admit it, I mostly picked up this game for its overtly Japanese intro movie and its horrendously bad voice acting. This game makes it no secret that it was supervised by the creator of Puyo Pop, which I consider the best puzzle game second to only Panel de Pon (known here as Tetris Attack or Puzzle League) and Tetris. While you probably haven't heard of Puyo Pop, the game has been released to the United States under the names of Kirby's Avalance on the SNES and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Sega Genesis. More recently though the game has made appearances here in its original Japanese form in a Gameboy Advance remake and its sequel Puyo Pop Fever which appeared on the Gamecube and Nintendo DS systems. Between that and the fact that games like Puzzle Fighter and Dr. Mario have an uncanny resemblance to the title, you've likely played something that was derived from Puyo Pop. Octomania follows the same basic structure where you'd often be facing against an AI where you'd compete to get big combos and ultimately drop useless tiles on the opponent to the point where they'd lose the game, or vice versa. These are sandwiched between cutesy voice acted "story" sequences as each opponent gets progressively harder.
While its not as addictive as the aforementioned Puyo Pop its fun enough to warrant the $15 purchase. The game also supports Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection multiplayer but the game's so obscure that its next to impossible to find a stranger to play it with and your better off exchanging friend codes with someone you know from the internet. Its worth noting that the game is just about unplayable with the default control scheme which requires you to use the Wii's IR based cursor to switch over tiles, its not precise enough to really get that far into the game. You can toggle to a more comfortable NES style horizontal configuration with the minus button on the remote or through the options area of the main menu.
Octomania was localized and published by Conspiracy Entertainment. This was the same company that brought us Ninjabread Man and Anubis II, both of which were some of the absolute worst games to ever grace the Wii. While both of those titles were developed by the British based Data Design Interactive, I have to commemorate Conspiracy for finally bringing over a solid and fun game to the Wii instead of cramming up the shelves with cheap budget cash-in titles that take advantage of mothers and casual consumers that just don't know any better. Sadly I don't think this is really a trend, there's still a sequel to Ninjabread Man coming out...
I'm pretty sure that if you were using the internet at any time during the month of December you would have seen this ridiculously beautiful trailer for The Machine Girl. It seems to tackle the typical themes of extreme Asian cinema including a desire for revenge like in the critically praised Old Boy and the "low budget be damned" approach to gory special effects like in the midnight B-movie classic Killer Snakes.
If my blog post about MadWorld is any indication, I'm a big fan of weapons for limbs. The film seems reminiscent of Robert Rodriguez's entry to last year's Grindhouse, Planet Terror. That is, without a shared $60 million budget with Quentin Tarantino which was used to digitally remove Rose McGowan's leg and add a machine gun to it in every shot. If it were truly a "grindhouse" experience, it would look a lot clumsier. That is unless the point of the film was to take low budget plot and honor it with cutting edge special effects. If the trailer is any indication The Machine Girl should have the same over the top violence, except with less CG and more rubber prosthetics and hoses for gore.
Today the film was quietly released on DVD and is being sold at the fairly reasonable price of $12.99 at Target and Best Buy locations, and I heard on imdb that its $11.99 at Walmart. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the audience for this would just snag it off of BitTorrent but then again I paid upwards of thirteen bucks to see Teeth at an indie playhouse in NYC and I only saw that movie just for the novelty of its obscure premise. I have certainly done worse before.
I only just noticed this awesome title today on Giant Bomb and I'm already pretty excited. Its release is only a week away and this is the first word I heard of it. While the narration of the trailer is pretty lame, I'm pretty excited to see what kind of creations the community is able to come up with for this title. With another "me-too" shoot-'em-up released just about every week for the Virtual Console on the Wii Shop Channel and an already overcrowding amount on the new WiiWare service in only the first month, its great to be able to potentially access a ton of great schmups (that's short for shoot 'em up :P) without having to fork over $6-$10 in Wii Points Cards. It will also allow for bullet patterns a la the underground Gamecube now XBLA title Ikaruga.
Another plus, is that it will come with the cult indie PC titles TUMIKI Fighters, rRootage, Gunroar, and Torus Trooper right out of the box. While the games are already available online for the PC as a free download (and trust me, I was addicted to Torus Trooper last year), they'll feel much more at home playing on a console. Especially, holding the Wii remote horizontally, NES style. I'd almost say its worth the price of admission alone for those titles.
Sadly, a game like this is only as strong as the community that supports it and with Majesco's track record with Psychonauts and Advent Rising, I wouldn't be surprised if this title wouldn't last more than a few months on store shelves...only to be replaced with another flock of low-grade PS2 ports and casual minigame compilations.
Hi there! I'm a movie and video game geek that happens to draw things. Currently I'm a Junior 3D Animation major at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
I'm also a colorblind student at art school, people tend to go crazy over that and yes, I had to take Color Theory class Freshman year and of course it sucked.
